Ghana the second time around!

Now the second time around my purpose for coming back is to build a classroom for the 4 year olds at the preschool where I was before. I raised 1900$ to do so and gave the cheque to the head mistress of the school on Monday! It was very exciting to do that, and it was great to be re-united with all of the children that I worked with before. Faustina says that the money will be enough to build the classroom, buy tables chairs and supplies for the school, provide vaccinations for a year for the children, and pay the landlord for the property for 3 months. Very exciting to know that my money is going a long way!

At the preschool so far I have been helping out mainly with the 2 and 3 year olds, this means diaper changes, bottle feeding and baby food feeding, chasing (lots of chasing), and holding the toddlers when they cry (which is a lot for no reason lol). As cute as these children are (and they are very very cute . . . part of me really wants black babies now) I would have to say that this is the BEST form of birth control out there!!

I have decided that when I get back to Canada, weight watchers and joining a gym is necessary!! Here in Ghana everyone (and I mean everyone) that I knew before, pork lady, auntie and uncle from the hostel, faustina and the other teachers, Nana, and the hairdressers all said that I had put on weight and that I have gotton fat. They all have said it as a compliment, and they say I look better this way. I asked Nana why and he said that bigger women in Ghana are more attractive because it means they will bear children better and it’s a sign of fertility. Even though everyone here loves that I’ve gotton fat, In Canada that is not a compliment, so weight loss is essential when I get back home (won’t happen here with all the rice, plantains, yams, and meat lol).

There are lots of interesting people at the hostel this time around, I have met a guy from England named Kamal (originally from east India) who is my age and really fun to hang out with. He is volunteering at the hospital here and has lots of cool malaria stories so far! He and I have spent many a boring night here at the hostel so far talking about the different places we’ve traveled and discussing the funny things in Ghana.

For example, this time around I have found out the answer to my questions about people having toilets in their house . . . answer is no they do not, they have buckets in which they do their business, then those buckets are dumped into the open gutters on the streets! Now I finally know why those look so gross and why the city smells so bad!

Also the drivers here are still crazy! They have made crosswalks (which are new since the last time I was here) but they haven’t made a bit of difference. . . cars still don’t really stop for people. When you are walking on the side of the road you really have to watch your back to see if a car is about to hit you.

Now here’s the thought Kamal and I had, and are still laughing about. When you’re walking down the street you are walking very very close to those open gutters full of shit, piss, and garbage. Now if a truck is beeping it’s horn and coming up behind you close to hitting you . . . you have two options, A: Trip over quickly and fall into the gutter of crap, or B: get hit by the truck. We are really not sure which is worse . . . judging by how nasty the gutters are, I think I’d be better off getting hit by the truck! That is still a big fear though, losing footing and stepping into a shit filled gutter . . . I would never feel clean!

You never feel clean here anyways, you’re always sweating so you’re smelly, there’s dust and dirt clinging to you everywhere, and when you do shower, the water is also full of dirt so your skin still feels pretty gritty! I can officially call myself a dirtbag while I am here. But the wonderful thing about that is, is that no one cares because everyone is just as dirty and sweaty!

I got my hair done in the “Rasta” braids again, they are much less hot then my natural hair, and they are easier to clean due to them being plastic hair! So that’s good. While I was getting my hair done I had lots of very funny conversations with the local hairdressers (it took about 9 hours to do). Last time I was here I had a boyfriend back home that they knew about, so of coarse they asked about him. When I told them that I broke up with him because he didn’t want to settle down and have children, they said that it was good that I did that because there were lots of “fish in the sea” who do want babies haha! They said in Ghana that would never happen, and if it did the man would be shunned (funny). They also asked about my family back home and when I told them I had a brother, one girl was quite insistent on marrying him! She asks about him every time I walk past the shop now, she’ll say “ah, you did not bring me Andrew yet, you get him on phone and we talk ok?” haha, we’ll see what Andrew thinks of that idea haha!

I have been eating lots of wonderful street food, for breakfast there is a lady at a stand outside the school who makes fried egg sandwiches on sweet bread, for lunch I have been eating goat meat (in a sauce) with rice, and at supper Auntie cooks for us at the hostel so it’s always different things. Last night we had boiled eggs in a weird chili sauce with spinach and some sort of meat, it had the same texture as cous cous. Neither Kamal or I can figure out exactly what it was, good but that’s the first time I’ve eaten a whole meal without being able to define what’s in it lol! At night the pork stand opens and I go get a baggie of pork for a snack, it is marinated in an amazing sauce and you can pick your own chunks of the meat when buying it, best pork in the world! It is kind of sad that the prok lady remembers me though, the first night I arrived here I went to get some and she says “ah akwaba (welcome) no spices eh?” shows how much I love the pork lol! I have also had lots of pineapple which is delicious, they sell it to you and then cut it up right there for you and put it in a bag with a toothpick to eat! That’s service haha! The fried plantain is also delicious. I am still on the hunt for mango’s though!

My room is great, single room this time right off the bat so that’s good. The noise never stops here though, at night when you are trying to sleep the nighclub music is blaring and you can hear the commotion of people. In the morning the muslim mosques start singing (loudly) in a loudspeaker their “call to allah” at about 7am. So noise is always a given!

No cockroach sightings in my room to date. I raided the room pretty profusely when I first arrived so that is probably why J. Lots of cockroaches in the common area where we hang out at night though.

My legs are once again covered in mosquito bites, despite my constant application of useless bug spray . . . 30% deet is apparently not enough to keep them away. I am taking Malaria pills, but I was last time too and got Malaria anyway . . . so we’ll see how that works out!

That’s about all I have to say for the last couple days. Tonight Kamal, Mary Pierre, Anne, and Petra are going out to Osu for the evening and for supper, then we will be going to the alliance francais to see a concert. The performer is from Cote D’Ivoire and does drum beats and urban music with tribal paintings. It should be very fun! I will let you all know how that goes soon J

I have posted pictures of my first day at the school on facebook, so you can have a look at those. I haven’t been taking as many pictures this time around because it would be pictures of the same things from last year (pointless really). But I will be taking pictures of new things that I do and new places that I go, so keep looking for those!

Thanks for reading what I’ve got to say about things so far! I will write again soon J